The Gulag . . .

I'm just wanting to post something today so I'll recall an occurance from a work email a few months ago. The security guards sent an email about a car blocking an isle in the parking lot. This sent my mind wondering about the possible connections between isle, aisle and island.

island noun
1. A land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water.
[Alteration (influenced by isle) of Middle English ilond, from Old English īegland : īg, īeg; see ak^w-ā- in Indo-European roots + land, land; see lendh- in Indo-European roots.]


isle noun
Abbr.
An island, especially a small one.
[Middle English ile, from Old French isle, from Vulgar Latin *īsula, from Latin īnsula.]



aisle noun
1. A part of a church divided laterally from the nave by a row of pillars or columns.
2. A passageway between rows of seats, as in an auditorium or an airplane.
3. A passageway for inside traffic, as in a department store, warehouse, or supermarket.
[Alteration (influenced by isle and French aile, wing) of Middle English ele, from Old French, wing of a building, from Latin āla.]

The above definitions and etymologies come from the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary relates
the following for the etymology of aisle: [Origin: 1350–1400; alter. (with ai < F aile wing) of earlier isle (with s from isle), ile; r. ME ele < MF < L āla wing, c. axle. See ala].


Word History from the American Heritage Dictionary : It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, "water," is related to island, which originally meant "watery land." Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akwā-, "water." *Akwā- became *ahwō- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjō-, "watery." This then evolved to *awwjō- or *auwi-, which in pre-English became *ēaj-, and finally ēg or īeg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about A.D. 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s in island is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin īnsula "island," a component of paenīnsula, "almost-island," whence our peninsula.

Okay, so peninsula gets brought in but what about archipelago?

Børk! Børk! Børk!

flibbertigibbet, noun:
A silly, flighty, or scatterbrained person, especially a pert young woman with such qualities.

[Flibbertigibbet is from Middle English flipergebet, which is probably an imitation of the sound of meaningless chatter.]


Last week this was a word of the day. It caused me to think of a similar word, barbarian.
barbarous, adjective
1. uncivilized; wild; savage; crude.
2. savagely cruel or harsh: The prisoners of war were given barbarous treatment.
3. full of harsh sounds; noisy; discordant: an evening of wild and barbarous music.
4. not conforming to classical standards or accepted usage, as language.
5. foreign; alien.
6. (among ancient Greeks) designating a person or thing of non-Greek origin.

The last definition was what I had in mind recalling that the word came from the sound (Bar Bar) that the Greeks used to describe foriegn languages. ([Origin: 1400–50; late ME Wikipedia.)

What's more, I came across a reference to rhubarb being a similar term. Actually, the word rhubarb is related to barbarian!According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
[Middle English rubarbe, from Old French, from Late Latin reubarbarum, probably alteration (influenced by Greek rhēon) of rhabarbarum : rha, rhubarb (from Greek rhā, perhaps from Rhā, the Volga River) + Latin barbarum, neuter of barbarus, barbarian, foreign; see barbarous.]
Random House Unabridged Dictionary takes it more usual quicker and less storied disection:
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME rubarb, reubarb It goes on to say that perhaps the reason for this has to do with the word rube.


Oh, and back to Flibbertigibbet. The Wikipedia includes these additional meanings:

• A character in Anglo-Saxon mythology, apprentice to Wayland Smith. This character was mentioned in the novel Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott.
• A slang term, used especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person.
• A female demon who seduces men; a succubus.
• One of the five fiends that possessed 'poor Tom' in King Lear (IV, i (1605)). Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends, which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, a name that had been previously used by Latimer and others for a mischievous gossip. Elsewhere the name is apparently a synonym for Puck. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. The word is now used generally for a gossiping or restless person. Sir Walter Scott uses it as a nickname for Dickie Sludge, the 'queer shambling, ill-made urchin' in Kenilworth (1821)

The reference to it being a demon puts it in a whole new context for me. Oh, and jibber-jabber, a seeminly similar term, brings up caterwaul. Maybe we can discuss that next time! In the mean time, sing along...."Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue, Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn børk! børk! børk!"